We are bad at keeping secrets, so let's just say that we have something cooking in the magazine with Nicola Verlato. And in the meantime, we have this preview, and think you should check out, Verlato's new solo show, Zero Gravity, opening at Los Angeles' Merry Karnowsky Gallery this Saturday, August 11.

We saw these new works by Swedish fine artist, Markus Akesson, yesterday, and they stayed in the back of our mind's all night, so we figured that must be a sign. The new paintings, most of them shown here, are set to be on display at the VIDA Museum in Borgholm, Sweden, from August 18 to September 30, 2012. The works are all oil on linen.

"My paintings are essays of observation, born from a relentless examination of my mileu. Rather than shout, my paintings speak softly. Their messages, both personal and profound, audible only to those who make the effort to listen. By documenting time, I attempt to slow its quickening pace; such that for the briefest of moments there is just the viewer, my painting and the space between."

We are not quite sure how to feel here, but we know we feel a little bit uncomfortable. Maybe it is the discolored skin? The pimples? The blood? The black eyes? The jewels? The smiling? The sadness? Probably the sores? Whatever it is, all we know is that there is something dark here, but we can't take our eyes off of the works of Amanda Elizabeth Joseph.

Michelle Furlong's artworks revolve around the human form, using the mediums of drawing, painting, and sculpture to investigate the limits space in and around the body. Furlong's drawings wrap and fragment arms, heads, feet, shoulders, and everything else in contorted and high-tension positions that flatten some limbs while others emerge fully rendered in graphite.

Michael Dotson's paintings are a myriad assortment of abstract planes in lurid hues, highly stylized and flattened representation, and hard edged abstract space. Each painting occupies a different degree of depth and flatness, presenting a maze of imagined and observed realms. Here are a selection of his more recent works.

We found ourselves this morning checking into what former Juxtapoz cover artist, Charlie Isoe, was up to, and we came acroos some mind-blowing paintings by Dutch artist, Joram Roukes. The oil paintings mix a bit of contemporary content with a mixture of pop-culture symbolism and stream of consciousness application. Roukes says of his work that they "refer to the moral dillemas one may find himself in, viewing todays western society."

We haven't checked in with one of our favorite painters, Chloe Early, in almost a year, and we loved the series of paintings she had at Joshua Liner Gallery last Fall. Taking a surreal approach, with figurative elements interchanged with color abstractions and dreamlike visions, Early's paintings take you on a stream of consciousness journey.

"Deenesh Ghyczy leads us into a world where habitual principals of thought and argument become meaningless. His figures stand beyond the cause-and-effect of everyday life; some are shown levitating, others in a state of complete inwardness. Streams of consciousness appear to be channeled and frozen in the recurrent motif of fragmented, disintegrating figures..."

Back in 2010, when we first saw the work of Palmero, Italy based fine artist, Fulvio di Piazza, we knew there was something special going on. Now, di Piazza has a new solo show back at Jonathan LeVine Gallery, full of oil on canvas surreal mindwarps, based on the economic writings of Jeremy Rifkin, and his 1980 book, Entropy.